‘I’ve tried for more than 100 jobs’: 18 year old fears she’ll be on universal credit for life

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I’m sure you immediately thought,”you are obviously doing it wrong.” And she probably is. But why hasn’t her 14 years of state education prepared her (mentally and literally) for this most fundamental of requirements to survive in the modern world?

My programme for this: 

* Attend interview elsewhere in the country and job center will give you a rail pass.
* Get the job, get a council studio flat or better, as well as having middle class parent type support from the local job center.
* Return the school leaving age to 16 but improve adult education. No benefits for people who leave at 16.
* Mandatory page 1 the same for all job applications. They are all the same anyway.
* Bonuses for job centre workers for clients who keep a continuous employment record for 1, 2 and 5 years if they’ve been out of work for more than a year.

There are loads of free college courses for young people. What has she been doing other than job hunting since finishing her GCSEs? There are amazing apprenticeships out there which would give her experience and possibly end in a paid job. If she’s struggling for experience then unpaid work experience even just for a day a week would help massively. Is there a charity she could help at? I don’t know what she wants to do but she needs to show on her cv that she’s doing SOMETHING to gain skills.

So what is she doing besides filling in the same information on repeated job applications?
There’s loads of free courses she can do via local sixth form colleges. Has she looked into volunteering to get experience and improve references? Has she considered she might need to move away? Looked at getting better qualifications by doing A-Levels (while they are still free for her)? Apprenticeships? Care work?

What she needs to do is lie on her CV and learn how to bullshit through an interview. That’s what I do and probably most of the goons on LinkedIn do too.

I’m so confused. I thought we need immigrants because we don’t have enough people to work. But here is someone at the beginning of her working life who has no idea where to focus and no path to training that will get her a career. Why are other countries better at training their young people for what we need?

I don’t think most people are aware of how bad the UK’s reputation is for child welfare. Under austerity, and even before that under Blair, kids lost everything. Not only did programmes like Sure Start (to get younger kids off to a healthy start in life and in education) and youth groups close, there were massive cuts in social care resources like the foster system, social workers, housing, and on and on. Schools are literally caving in on kids’ heads. Playing fields and public facilities like swimming pools have been sold off. It was done cynically and selfishly in order to hand everything to Boomer voters.

I escaped a shithole town by the skin of my teeth when I was 16. My parents were very violent. There was no work. Yet I managed to get scholarships that allowed me to complete a PhD at one of the best universities in the world and a part-time job paid my rent. I only slept four to five hours a night, but it was possible.

These days, there is simply no way these kids can even afford a bus ticket out of town let alone pay their rent and a first month’s deposit on shit minimum wages. University is out of reach. There are very, very few scholarships or training opportunities. Apprenticeships are for people whose parents are willing to house them and pay for basics.

It is shameful that this is happening.

I have sympathy but it is limited. She has applied for about a hundred jobs half of those in the first month. That means for the last eight months she is applying for roughly one or two per week. Thats not a lot.

Granted jobs in her town may be limited but Llwynypia where she lives has a train station that will get her to Cardiff Central in under an hour for just over £9 return.

If she wants a job she will be able to get one, it might not be easy but she is going to have to put in a bit of effort as there may not be one right on her doorstep.

The amount of judgemental people in these comments should be studied. She’s 18, I’m sure she’ll figure it out.